Is Freelance Writing Legit? (Yes and Here’s Why)
This article that you are writing was written by a freelance writer, and freelance writing is extremely legit and a great way to make some money. If you have even a bit of writing talent, a skill at research, and some basic editing know-how, you can become a freelance writer without any other experience.
Freelance writing is a legit and great way to earn some extra money on the side, and if you can write a lot in a day you can make some good money depending on how much you charge and what your skill level.
Everyone is looking for written words for blogs, web content, and other online items. In order to break into writing for a living, read the rest of this article and see what can be done to get you into it.
Why Freelance Writing is a Legit Way to Earn a Income
The main reason that freelance writing is one of the best ways to earn an income is because of how lucrative it is.
There’s a massive demand for written content on the web, where everyone needs content for their blogs, websites, and webpages. The problem is that writing great content takes some serious time.
If you are a business owner and need to make sure that every single part of your business is running smoothly, then you don’t have time to write out a 500 word blog post or a 1000 word press release.
There’s just not enough time in the day to get everything done, and that’s when freelance writers get hired for their work.
Freelancers have that free time and the writing skill that most business owners lack, and they are paid to share the information that you need to have shared.
Every business needs freelance writers, and the business model is only going to grow and get more expensive and lucrative for writers every single day.
How Much Can Freelance Writers Make?
Most freelance writers can earn about 3 to 5 cents per world once they get to become intermediate as a writer.
A 1,000-word article can make you about 30 to 50 dollars per hour, and what if you do 3-5 articles per day? That can be some good money, especially if you can do 1,000 words an hour.
A good client will offer at least 1 cent per word, and they might even negotiate if you can provide relevant samples and other extras for them.
As you pick your niche, create more samples showcasing your style, and focus on improving your writing, your price can start to go up all the way to ten cents a word! That’s 100 dollars an article and it can only go up from there!
The money also depends on what you are writing and your experience level.
If you are a master at writing dentistry articles and you have three years of experience with it, you can charge a lot more than a beginner who is writing dentistry articles for the first time.
Also, this depends on the client, because in some cases clients will pay you less or more than you think you deserve. If the client sets the paycheck, then you’ve got to deal with that.
Where to Offer your Writing Services
You can do quite a lot as a legal freelance writer nowadays, and here are some of the best places.
Upwork
The first is Upwork, a job board with great rates and a very large community.
You can find plenty of jobs from several different niches, and the clients are all very nice and kind
You can find a really good community here, along with some great jobs.
Freelancer.com
Freelancer.com is a job board similar to Upwork, although it is very small and often pays a bit less.
Plus it doesn’t have the massive community that Upwork does.
It is legitimate but can often seem like a race to the bottom if you are bidding for a fiercely competitive contract.
iWriter.com
IWriter.com is a pay-per-word website, where you grab projects and complete them at the per-word rate.
For example, you could grab two 1000 articles that are .02 cents a word, and you will get paid $40 dollars total.
It doesn’t matter if you write extra words, you will only be paid for the 2,000 words that you write. Textbroker is another site that is very similar to a pay-per-word website.
Problogger Job Board
Finally, the Problogger job board is where you can not only bid for jobs, while also putting your skills onto the website.
If you are good at writing articles in the medical niche, you can put up your rates and then have clients start to come to you.
Try out a bunch of job boards and see which one works for you, you’ll discover whether you work best out of a pay per article job or pay per word job.
Then you can compare your workload to your budget and plan out your day.
Does Freelance Writing Pay Well?
Pay-per-word websites are very easy when it comes to scheduling out your payments because you grab the articles that you know you can handle.
Then you can calculate your earnings as the week goes on. For per article prices, they can vary a bit, and sometimes you don’t know the price until the articles get to you.
It really depends on your speed if what you want to see is freelance writing worth it. You should be able to do several 1,000 word articles a day, and if you have a good per word/per article rate, you can make three figures a day very easily.
As you type faster and become a better typer, then you will be able to produce more, take more jobs, and also have people hire you.
Finally, clients are going to want different types of posts. Some people might want a simple 1000 word blog post, while others are in the market for a 1000 word college research paper.
One of these is going to be harder than the other, and each one has different rules and other requirements that you will need to keep in mind.
It’s perfectly fine to have different types of rates for different articles, where you might charge 20 dollars for a simple blog post, but 40 dollars for a college paper.
Additionally, if you’ve been with a client for a long time, you might be able to ask about a raise for your work as well.
Where to Get Started as a Freelance Writer
Becoming a freelance writer is about more than just writing, but also about research and editing as well.
If you are good at writing but can’t research everything, then your articles might not be as good.
Same thing with editing and writing. If you don’t have all three skills hammered down before you start offering your services, then you won’t be making as much money as you could be.
There’s also a lot to learn about marketing. You need a solid resume, a good website, and several well written writing samples.
Marketing is another part of freelance writing because you could be the best writer in the world but if no one knows that you exist, then you won’t get any work.
In order to start freelancing, you just need to start, and work with a beginner client.
There are several who will train you in the art of freelancing, freelance writing, and what the formatting should look like. They’ll show you how everything works, and you will learn from them.
However, there are some problems that just can’t be learned on the job. For that, you need to learn.
Use courses, podcasts, books, and other items to answer your questions, and one of the best items you can use is the course “Earn More Writing”
Earn More Writing is a course that helps you get started and earn more money as a freelance writer.
Over a few free courses, and 8 modules it gives you a way to build your brand and start to make it make you some money.
You will learn how to pick your niche, set your prices, build your portfolio, write your blog, and even how to structure your workday to become more effective.
This course is taught by a freelance writer who actually made it and went from making nothing to making 6 figures.
The course can do the exact same thing for everyone who takes it, and you can start to learn everything you need to build a profitable business.
Final Thoughts
Becoming a freelance writer is a tough road, and it will take a while for you to get your foot in the door, but once you do you will open the area to a lot of new opportunities.
If you love writing, have a few different niches that you can always see yourself writing about, and can research, write, and edit effectively, then you can become a freelancer.
Get started and you will be able to answer the question ‘is freelance writing worth it?’ with a resounding yes!
